Operation Christmas Child

My Church participates in Operation Christmas Child. My understanding of Operation Christmas Child is that we give a shoebox full of goodies (toys, school supplies, hygiene items and so forth) to children in poor areas of the world. Today I received a news letter from the Church saying, in part, that "one out of three children will probably accept Christ from receiving a shoe box." I'm kind of ambivalent about this.

I guess I'll start with my "against" argument... mainly because I want to end on a positive note. From MY perspective, being a Christian is about serving, and talking about Christ to those who are ready to hear what I have to say. Sometimes I have intellectual discussions with people, other times I have emotional/spiritual talks. Occasionally I bring up the topic of my spirituality, but usually I try to simply respond when others broach the subject. Always... always, my goal is not to try to convince anyone that my way is right. My approach is to listen to people, ask thought-provoking (or soul-searching) questions, and leave people with food for thought. In my experience, trying to brow-beat or debate someone into believing in God is counter-productive. I have had better success in sharing my story of faith and allowing others to find God in their own way and time.

This is what I have against Operation Christmas Child. Instead of simply giving to... serving.. our fellow man, as Jesus instructed us to do, this organization packs the shoe boxes full of literature, requires recipients to attend some sort of rally, and then does a follow up. I have nothing against this in and of itself, but I do have an issue with the psychological aspect of it. Basically, we're bringing stuff to children, and then saying "Look at how awesome we are. You should convert to Christianity, and then you could be awesome too." Furthermore, from a strictly psychological standpoint, we are exploiting the vulnerabilities of the weak. Those who are starving will say or do just about anything for a good meal. Isn't it realistic to expect that many of these "one out of three" are simply paying lip service to their benefactors? Not only is Operation Christmas Child cajoling the needy, they are manipulating statistics to perpetuate their cause. It seems to me that if people are giving for the sake of giving, then the statistic shouldn't matter; and if people are giving strictly for the sake of turning pagans to Christ, then a .001% success rate should be considered a success, because one cannot place a value on salvation of the damned.

On the other side of the coin, I should say for the record that ministry is not a bad thing. I believe that I am a better, happier person since I started going to Church and actually putting effort in to my relationship with God. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to tell others about God. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting friends, family and even total strangers to experience the peace, love and joy that people of faith can experience. With this in mind, I need to acknowledge that there's nothing inherently wrong with Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and so forth sharing this joy as well. But I draw the line at Mormons. [KIDDING!!!] I think it's a good thing to talk to one another about spirituality, as long as those involved in the discussion understand and respect the boundaries. It's okay for an atheist to question my beliefs, as long as they don't discount and ridicule them. It's acceptable for me to challenge a Muslim's view on God, as long as I realize that they are coming from their own position of faith. It's cool for a Buddhist to chat with an atheist about Siddhartha Gautama, as long as the Buddhist understands that the atheist's faith that there is no God is as understandable as the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Oh crap. I think that I totally lost the point. Oh yeah, the point is this... it's okay to discuss faith. It's not okay to force your beliefs on another autonomous being.